Education Projects

"It was also a fabulous experience to work with a group of exceptional musicians, which the children all enjoyed. For some children it was a new experience hearing a live orchestra and spontaneously producing music to go with literature. This seemed to bring the poetry to life for the children and enhanced their comprehension." sound festival 2012

The goal of Daniel's Beard's education work is to inspire and challenge, to help the participants to experience and enjoy the process of creating something new and then being involved in performing it.

We have education projects that are based on Lewis Carroll's poem Jabberwocky (aimed at P6/7 age ranges) and Edward Lear's The Youthful Cove (S4/5/6) which use existing music to explore ways of creating new material. The final product is then performed by Daniel's Beard alongside the works on which they are based - Lenny Sayers' settings of nonsense poems by Lear and Carroll.

A new education project is currently being created, based on Sayers' new setting of Tennyson's classic poem, The Lady of Shalott (watch a film about the piece below). The project will include the possibility of additional workshops in dance, art and literature.

Workshops have been held throughout Aberdeenshire as part of the sound festival, at Aboyne High School, in Hyndland Secondary School, in collaboration with Classic Music Live! Falkirk, Arts Across Learning Festival and Strathspey and Badenoch Music Festival.

"The mixture of nonsense poems - composed by the youngsters, musical accompaniment by pupils and members of Daniel’s Beard, and a bit of fun and games both on and off the stage was hugely entertaining and clearly enjoyed just as much by the performers. It will be a long time before CMLF regulars will forget the Dinosaur Stomp." Falkirk Herald 2013